Naming is hard. Ask any parent. Identifying a
new business or product can be just as difficult, plus there is a
cluster of important legal requirements and limits. There is a huge
body of knowledge about impactful and effective names (did you know
the letters "K" and "X" are especially powerful
in product names?) but we will leave that to branding experts.
Let's cover a few things you must consider from a legal
perspective when naming your new baby, er, venture.
The first step is to ensure you are not
infringing any existing names. This begins with searches at the
Canadian Trademarks Database, as well as corporate registries in
appropriate jurisdictions.
That itself raises some questions. What is
the difference between a trademark and a trade name? They are
different, but for these purposes we can look at trademarks as
protecting products – a good or service. A trade name or
business name, on the other hand, typically applies to the overall
identifier an
